CONCLUSION

   When Creative informed us that they'd be sending the Sound BlasterAxx AXX 200 over i have to admit that i was expecting something larger and so when i took the speaker out of its box i was somewhat disappointed. Certainly by "normal" standards the AXX 200 is medium in size but having reviewed large and very large wireless speakers like the A73 Boombox by TDK and the Solemate MAX by Jabra i don't really consider size to be extremely important (just as long as the weight is right). Fortunately thanks to the SBX feature the AXX 200 actually packs a larger punch compared to its size something which becomes really evident once you use it as an external USB sound card. Of course it can't compete with the X-Fi Titanium HD connected to a home theater like the setup in my room but it did perform much better compared to the built-in Harman Kardon speakers of my Toshiba Qosmio laptop so i expect many people to use it the same way. I was also quite surprised to see that although the Axx 200 has a limited amount of bass (the exhaust port pushes air all the time but obviously the radiator is not powerful enough) it produced excellent mids/highs with very clear dialogs when used with HD movies. We did experience some audio distortion with the volume level turned all the way up but that's not really news to me since it has happened more times than i care to count with many other wireless portable speakers. If i could improve one thing about the speaker system used in the Axx 200 that would be to add at least one more driver and reposition all of them in order to give the device 360 degree sound. Moving to the quad microphones they also work as advertised and much better than most (if not all) wireless speakers we've reviewed to date since the people on the other end reported crystal clear audio quality. On the other hand however i can't say that i used the Super Megaphone feature a lot. Using it can certainly be fun and it does deliver on what it promises but i doubt I’d ever use it (unless if i wanted to pull a prank to someone). The microSD slot with the integrated WMA/MP3 player (a USB port attached to that player would make a fine addition for people who have their media lists in flash drives) is a very nice touch but i still can't figure out why Creative didn't include a next/previous track button on the touch-sensitive control panel. Using the rear buttons can be somewhat hard when you’re not very close to the unit so next time i hope Creative remembers that. As for the 5200mAh lithium-ion rechargeable battery well it gives the device up to 12 hours of playback time at almost maxed out volume levels and that's quite remarkable especially when the average battery life for such devices is set at around 8 hours at max volume levels. The only serious "issue" we came across while testing the Sound BlasterAxx AXX 200 was with the Android application which didn't make all tabs available to us but even if this is not an isolated event I’m certain that Creative will eventually fix that bug (if not you can still use the Axx 200 in normal streaming mode just like every other wireless speaker out there).

   As we speak Creative has the Sound BlasterAxx AXX 200 Intelligent Wireless Sound System for sale at USD149.99/149.99Euros (from the usual price of USD299.99/299.99Euros) on their online store and although the original price tag is indeed set quite high for this speaker this one is actually very good for all the things you're getting. Unfortunately the charging base is still sold separately and although usually Creative has it for sale at around USD29.99/29.99Euros whenever they have the AXX 200 for sale right now it's still listed at USD59.99/59.99Euros a price tag which is just too high for my taste especially for what the base offers. The Sound BlasterAxx AXX 200 is far from being the perfect wireless speaker (if you just want a powerful wireless speaker then there are better solutions in the market currently) but it's so much more than just that so thanks to its very good audio quality (not for content rich in bass however), large number of features and very affordable price tag it's actually more like the jack of all trades which is why we give it our Platinum Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Design
- Excellent Mids/Highs/Vocals (SBX Pro Studio Suite)
- Volume Levels (SBX Pro Studio Suite)
- Quad-Microphones
- External USB Sound Card
- Touch-Sensitive Control Panel
- Super Megaphone Feature (Voice Masking)
- Battery Life (Up To 15 Hours)
- MicroSD Port With Integrated WMA/MP3 Player
- Voice Recording (Onto The MicroSD Card)
- iOS & Android Control Application
- Current Price Tag (For Some)

CONS

- Bass Levels
- Original Price Tag
- Charging Base Price (For Some)